Photo by Ed Delany of Metsmerized

Max Scherzer took to the mound against the Rays on Friday knowing that he would be the Opening Day starter for the New York Mets. He paid back the faith shown in him by absolutely dominating on the mound in his final spring training tune-up.

It was reported on Friday by Mike Puma of the New York Post that Scherzer would get the start on Opening Day against the Miami Marlins, with the Mets later confirming that news.

Scherzer will become the Mets’ 28th all-time Opening Day starter. He missed out on pitching on Opening Day for the Mets in 2022 after suffering a hamstring injury. The three-time Cy Young Award winner is likely to go up against Miami’s Sandy Alcantara, in what will be one of the most highly-anticipated pitcher duels of Opening Day.

Starting on Opening Day is a big deal for pitchers and it will be the seventh time Scherzer has had that honor, with the previous six all coming with the Washington Nationals. And, despite achieving pretty much all there is to achieve in the majors, Scherzer still gets excited about the prospect of pitching on Opening Day.

“It’s awesome,” Scherzer said after Friday’s game. “It’s a heck of a day to pitch on, the atmospheres are crazy every single venue that you’re in. It’s going to be a great day and it’s really fun to get out there and get the ball in that situation.”

It appears as though Scherzer is more than ready for Opening Day, too.

Making his final start of spring training, the righty was locked in against the Rays and he breezed through an easy first inning at Tropicana Field. Scherzer did run into some trouble in the second, however, giving up a walk, a single and a hit by pitch in consecutive plate appearances to load the bases with two outs. Yandy Díaz was able to tie the game with a single to left field that drove in two runs, before Scherzer forced Wander Franco to ground out to end the inning and escape before any further damage was done.

“This last start, this is a full kind of dress rehearsal,” Scherzer said. “I was going to get 100 pitches and you go. You’re facing the lineup two, three times now. When you get into your Opening Day start, you get into that 90-plus pitch count and now I can tell Buck (Showalter) ‘look I’ve been here, I’m strong, I can go,’ or ‘hey, I know where I’m physically at and I’m starting to fatigue.’ It makes the conversation with Buck in that situation just a lot more confident if I say I’ve got one more hitter.”

However, after getting those kinks out of the way, Scherzer absolutely dominated and he allowed just one more batter to reach base over the next four innings. He struck out five of the last six Tampa Bay hitters he faced, finishing with two runs on four hits while walking one and striking out 11. According to Jacob Resnick, Scherzer’s 11 strikeouts set a new Mets spring training record going back to 2006 when spring training box scores became available.

Scherzer’s impressive outing against the Rays capped off what has been a strong spring for the veteran. He finished his Grapefruit League campaign with a 1.53 ERA with three earned runs on 16 hits and 25 strikeouts in just over 17 innings of work. After using the duration of spring training to ramp up and get his body right, Scherzer feels good and as close to the peak of his powers as possible.

“That’s where I’ve been paying attention to how I ramp up,” Scherzer said. “You know the pitch count and seeing how my body responds to that. And here I am, I’ve ramped up, I’ve got to 100 pitches and I feel great. My side is responding well, I’m not having any lingering effects from it and that’s the good news, I’ve got my side built up and strong like my arm as well.”

With his spring training campaign now firmly in the rear mirror, Scherzer can fully focus on getting himself ready for Opening Day and going up against one of the best in Alcantara.

“It’s everything,” Scherzer said. “You feel like you are at the starting line of a marathon, of the season, everyone is playing on the same day, you’ve got the best pitching matchups across the league and the whole day is awesome. It is fun. I enjoy competing against the best. He’s obviously one of the best in the game and that’s what Major League Baseball does, it constantly puts you against the best and constantly puts you in high intensity positions. You’ve got to rise to it and match it every single time. That’s the challenge of the big leagues and that’s what makes it great.”